Vagabond Non-Electric Hour Meter

[cammons3]

Trying to make the panel on the Vag a little more OEM. Finding a 3.5" Cub tach is not as much of a problem as originally thought, but maintaining a recordable hour meter is proving an issue. For you non-electric plane owners/maintainers, have you come up with anything in the way of a mechanical hobbs meter? I've researched some, but I'm unsure whether shielded plug wires might keep the pulses from recording.
Any assistance appreciated.

[BrettL]

Curt,

I'm using a Garmin 296 GPS to aid in my recording of flight time on my Vagabond. It automatically records the time that the aircraft is moving at more than 30 knots ground speed and/or is more than 500 feet above the surface, and keeps the record for the last 50 flights. I'm also changing to an original tach, but prior to that I found in comparing the times on the Garmin vs. the recording tach, that recording tach was showing 100 hours when I had only flown about 90 hours, thus cheating me a bit on compliance with ADs with hourly requirements. You could always do it the old fashioned way and try to remember to check your watch just before takeoff, and just after landing and write down the times.

Brett

[redbarron55]

No hour meter on the tach?

[BrettL]

No hour meter on the tach?

No hour meter on the tach!

$(KGrHqF,!iUE9juP+tjUBPZcUr1oQg~~60_58.JPG

[mjlossner]

Way back, 80 something, our company put a Vibration activated hour meter on our rental aircraft. Seems we had a group of pilots that found how to disable the electric hobbs meter. I put one on my J-3 and it worked fine the 1500 hrs. I flew it. I wound itself up like a watch as it wasn't correct on landing, but it continued to run after shutdown and was correct when you went to fly it the next time. Looking in the Aircraft Spruce Catalog Pg.456 they have a small one runs on a internal battery. Others may have such a thing too. I think the ones we got years ago came from an Industrial Application like fork lift type company...hard to remember, I've slept since then........

[tyndall]

The vibration style hour meters are a farm item. Think old tractor with no electrical.

Or for a fancy one http://www.enmco.com/new/t56-vibration-activated.php

[cammons3]

Currently I have a (typical) recordable tach in the Vag with the rest of the instruments being OEM cream-faced, Cub style (see photo). As Brett mentioned and showed, the original tach was a 3.5", CCW, non-recordable one; similar in size to the oil pressure/temp gauge.
Yes, I could do it the ol' tried-n-true way with logging clock time in a book, but I would hope that I could find something in an hour meter that I could hide under the panel or place on the firewall in the engine compartment. Heck, most of the time I'm flying the Vag, I don't carry a wallet, much less a watch... for uh... weight consideration...
I have looked at the vibration type that mjlossner and tyndall mentioned, and the internal battery styles that wrap around a spark plug wire (e.g., ENMs PT15C2). I've also seen this one from Delta Systems that uses the magneto (2014-105). The problem with the internal battery styles is most of them have a battery is not replaceable. They do have four to eight year life spans (approximately), but there's no way to retrieve the total time once the battery dies. As many of us can appreciate, we want to retain that total time, or have logged it at some point when replacement of the hour meter is necessary. Some of these hour meters are pretty fancy, and can even give notification with programmable alarms for servicing, inspections, etc.
Anyway, just curious as to whether anyone has dealt with anything other than the typical mechanical, recordable tachs/hour meters, and if so, what was their experience with serviceability, accuracy, durability, etc.
Thanx!
N4405H-panel.jpg

[d.grimm]

Curt,
Slightly less than original, why not send the tach out and have the face
Painted to match the others/ originals?
Dave

[BrettL]

Curt,

I'm just curious, but did you install that instrument panel since you got the Vagabond? It's a little difficult to tell for sure by the photo but it looks like one of Clyde Smith's panels. The panel in my mine is an original Piper part, but it has had extra holes cut in it. I've got one of Clyde's panels to install, but because of how upholstery was installed over the glare shield, it appears I'll have to remove the windshield to ultimately access the attaching screws for the instrument panel.

Brett

[Throttle Pusher]

The ENM T41 at Aircraft Spruce will connect with external power as well as internal Lith. batt.
You could connect it with a 9 volt batt and just replace it every annual.
37.50 not bad.